The Cloud Computing Stack “Pizza as a Service”

In my previous article I explained what the “cloud” was and the difference between the private, public and hybrid cloud. Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). These are sometimes referred to as the cloud computing stack. They build on top of one another. Knowing what they are and how they’re different can make it easier to accomplish your business goals.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – “Ready-made frozen pizza”

The traditional world of on-premises (your own IT) data management could be compared to making your own pizza at home. This includes everything from buying your ingredients, the equipment needed to make the pizza, supplying the dining room table, and the crockery and utensils required to eat the pizza, plus your extras, like salt and pepper.

IaaS on the other hand can be compared to ready-to-use frozen pizza. All you need to be concerned about is the stuff needed to warm up and serve the pizza. For IaaS, this involves buying access to the hardware and infrastructure resources you need to deliver cloud services on a pay-as-you-go model, over the Internet.

Using IaaS avoids the expense and complexity of buying and managing your own physical servers and other data centre infrastructure. Your cloud computing service provider manages the infrastructure while you manage your own software. A good example of IaaS is ordinary web hosting. You pay a subscription or data usage fee to a hosting company to serve up files for your website from their servers.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) – “Pizza delivery service”

With PaaS you don’t even need to worry about the equipment needed to warm up the pizza. All you need to do is set the table and provide the crockery and cutlery needed to eat the pizza. PaaS is the complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable you to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications.

In much the same way as IaaS, with PaaS you purchase the resources you need from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-you-go basis and access them over a secure Internet connection. PaaS not only includes infrastructure—servers, storage, and networking—but also includes middleware, development tools, business intelligence (BI) services, database management systems, and more.

Software as a Service (SaaS) – “Restaurant Pizza”

With SaaS you don’t need to worry about anything except eating and enjoying the pizza. The restaurant takes care of everything from making the pizza, cooking it and serving it to you. SaaS therefore takes care of all the underlying infrastructure, the application software and the data located in your service provider’s data centre. Your service provider manages the hardware and software, and with the appropriate service or contractual agreement, will ensure the availability and the security of the application and your data as well. Common examples are email, calendars, and office suites Microsoft Office 365.

Dale Waterman is a corporate attorney who is passionate about helping organizations implement digital transformation objectives by assessing and managing legal and regulatory challenges for digital enablers like cloud computing, IoT and AI.